Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Branson, MO Day 2

I finally ran again!  Yes, I know you are all surprised.  I was too.  It was nice to look around the campground between gasps and pants.  It is really an nice campground.  It is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers campground.  If you have never stayed at one of the corps campgrounds it is a real treat.  They are always really nice and are almost always on a lake or river.  We hung out at the campground for a while.  Then the rest of the day was kinda chaotic.  We couldn't figure out what we were going to do, so we pretty much did nothing for a few hours.  We would drive a bit and then just stop.  After that nonsense we finally drove to the Chateau Hotel and we all got out and went in.  It is a beautiful place right on the lake.  It had a wonderful pool so Dave and the boys went for a swim.  It was very nice and relaxing to just hang out by the pool and do nothing.  That is the funny thing about this trip.  You would think we would have a lot of free time but we really have very little.  We are always doing something.  We have decided that a little more relaxing time will do us good.  After the Chateau we went to the downtown Branson area and walked around.  It is a really pretty shopping area right on the lake.  Dave and I both decided that if we were ever to come back and stay in a hotel here we would stay at the Hilton right in the middle of it all on the lake.  Dave has never been to a Bass Pro Shop so we walked in there and watched the man feed the fishes in the huge tank.  We bought another fishing pole to take the place of the 2 that the boys left at the campground in Texas.  Sterling was craving Chinese food (it's his favorite) so we went to a Chinese buffet for dinner.  After dinner we headed back to the Indian Point Campground and watched another best of Johnny Carson video that I got at the garage sale in Chicago.  I love watching Carson and it has been cool that the boys seem to enjoy him too.  While I'm talking about blasts from the past I need to mention that I have been reading Hardy Boys books to the boys and they are really enjoying them.  We have been having problems tonight with the electrical in the RV.  We are really praying that it is the campgrounds box and not our RV.  We will let you know tomorrow.
Thought of the day:  There are a lot of restaurants to choose from when you are eating out.  I have decided that if you want your restaurant to survive you need to either have really great food or a original theme.  If you have a great theme people go for the fun of the theme.  For instance, everyone is telling us to go to Lambert's Cafe on our way to Bartlesville, OK.  It is known as the home of the throwed rolls.  If you say roll they have roll chuckers that will chuck a roll at you.  We are all very excited to go to this restaurant so that we can say "roll."  The thing that is funny to me is that not once has anyone mentioned if the food is good or bad, nor have we asked.  All we care about is that they throw rolls.  There are a lot of restaurants like this that survive and thrive on their fun themes.  So if you open a restaurant and you are not an extraordinary cook you better have a good theme.